“I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be a reporter. I don't know where I got the idea that it was a romantic calling.”

“Since my retirement, I've spent a lot of time trying to help the School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina. A society like this just can't afford an uneducated underclass of citizens.”

“I can't remember a time when I didn't want to be a reporter. I don't know where I got the idea that it was a romantic calling.”

“Now that I look back on it, having retired from being a reporter, it was kind of romantic. It was a wonderful way to live one's life, just as I imagined it would be when I was 6 or 7.”

“A country so rich that it can send people to the moon still has hundreds of thousands of its citizens who can't read. That's terribly troubling to me.”

“The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines.”

“Thanks to the Interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything.”

“Just by luck, I picked good heroes to worship.”

“Good teachers know how to bring out the best in students.”

“I believe that writing is derivative. I think good writing comes from good reading.”

“You can find your way across this country using burger joints the way a navigator uses stars.”